ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION, IDENTIFICATION OF NEEDS, DEFINITION OF PRIORITIES IN NETWORKING, ADVOCACY AND DEVELOPMENT OF AMATEUR CULTURE IN ORDER TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND CULTURE OF LIVING IN SLOVENIA
In 2020, as part of the “Arts Take Part” project, our team managed to translate into English and publish another research publication (this time it is a Slovenian publication) and we are excited to share it with you!
The purpose of this research is to identify the needs and priorities for networking and advocacy in amateur cultural activities by analyzing the financing, human resources and spatial capacities of cultural societies, mentorships, advocacy, consulting, informing, networking and cooperation with related organizations. It was led by The Union of Cultural Societies of Slovenia in cooperation with the Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities (JSKD).
AMATEUR ART IN FIGURES
Amateur culture in Slovenia is a wide-ranging sector compared to other cultural sectors, which is why it is difficult to precisely delimit or define its area of activity. There are around 5.000 cultural societies and groups active on the field of amateur art and culture in Slovenia, with more than 100.000 actively involved adults. They showcase approximately 25.000 cultural events per year, which are viewed by 4.000.000 visitors.
THE STATE OF AMATEUR CULTURE AT LOCAL AND NATIONAL LEVELS AND EXPOSED ISSUES
Generally, cultural societies find the situation in amateur culture good locally and nationally. Only a few respondents (5.6% for the local level and 3.9% for the national level) believe that the general state of amateur culture is insufficient, which shows that both the state and local communities take good care of amateur culture and creativity. The respondents identified several reasons for low scores (sufficient and insufficient) for amateur culture in local communities (26.4%) and in general (21.3%). The most common reasons are related to financing, but other reasons are: insufficient engagement and presence in devising local cultural policies, insufficient interest of municipal authorities in the development of cultural activities, spatial problems, disinterest in amateur culture, especially among young people, insufficient programme cooperation and interaction between different activities of societies, vast bureaucracy, small audiences, lack of adequate staff, lack of young people to carry on work, ageing members of cultural societies, poor regulation of remuneration to mentors, lack of local education and training, insufficient promotion of amateur culture, lack of concrete instructions for monitoring and adapting to amendments to legislation, inadequate national cultural policy, lack of concrete guidelines for societies’ operation, poor links between culture and tourism, lack of time for proper preparation of cultural programmes, activities and events.